What was the feeling out there today?
You've got a rookie quarterback commanding the huddle. You know, he's got 'Hey, guys' getting the attention. The way he came in there, his poise in that, I thought that was amazing. I thought he did a really good job on certain plays where to dirt the ball. And then also on that last one, I'm sure they told him, but to just have the understanding to take a sack there instead of just throwing the ball, stopping the clock, make them use that last use a time out. I thought that was a really good job.
You mentioned the confidence, he seemed to come into the day with confidence. Could you see that early on?
Yeah, yeah. All week, he didn't look like he was flustered at all. He didn't look like he was panicked with his things. He's going to make mistakes. He had a couple, where he maybe called a play wrong or somebody—usually guys they start freaking out. But for him, he just moved on to the next one and just kept going. So, I thought just a really good job with the poise. That was amazing. It showed out there today that he was he was prepared. He's ready to go. He didn't come to the O-line dinner this week. So, I'm guessing he was studying up. Usually he's there. So I'm guessing he took some extra time to study up. I think it showed out there today.
Everybody seemed to pick him up today, though. You know, you guys get the running game going, defense, special teams. It was all hands on deck today.
I think we just got to Titan ball. think we were starting to feel ourselves go out there and just do a good job of complementary football, being able to run the ball game, to get play-action off of that, being able to mix it up and get some drop back going kind of things. Just kind of keeping the defense on the heels. I mean, if you get into situations where they know what you're doing, I know a lot of people were wondering why we kept talking about third-and-ten, like why is it a big deal? It's a big deal because now we're giving the defense like all the answers to the test. Now they know exactly what we're trying to do. They can set up all their stuff. Now they have the advantage. So the big thing is just making sure that we stay efficient in the chains, and be able to run our entire offense, and then have the defense on their heels trying to figure out what we're doing rather than us trying to figure out what they're doing.
You get to 3-4, but obviously not a lot of time to celebrate with a short week. You've got to go to Pittsburgh on Thursday. What's the mindset got to be?
I think Vrabes (Mike Vrabel) said it best. It's to physically recover and mentally prepare. I think that's the biggest thing. We got to take care of our bodies. But then also we have to do everything we can to be able to get the footwork we need for this week. It's going to be a different defense out there and then to be able to prepare for that. Luckily we're into the season more. So now, we've seen a few different defenses, so that should help,especially the young guys.
